Onkyo TX-SR606 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)
by Onkyo
|
List Price: Our Price: $179.99 You Save: $319.01 (64%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Speakers See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Onkyo TX-SR606 7.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver (Black)
Customer Review: Many Features! Greatest Value For The Money.
Summary: 5 Stars
Have been a loyal Onkyo customer since the early 1980's. Have always been impressed with the features that Onkyo products provide. Looking for a AVR receiver to replace my Onkyo SR-TX555 Dolby 5.1 unit because I was needing for more processing capabilities for the newer digital audio formats associated with Blu-ray. Was also looking at HDMI input output.
Although initially looking at Onkyo 606 and 706, I also looked at other brands for sanity check. After reading many reviews on several brands and models, from a features to price comparison, everything pointed to Onkyo. I decided on the 606 over the 706 mainly because I just could not see the $200 difference in price between the 2 units. Also, nearly everywhere I looked, the 606 was getting the best consumer reviews.
Now to give you my customer review on the 606. After 1 week of use, the unit DELIVERS AS ADVERTISED and sounds incredible, although with as many features as this unit offers, I am still learning exactly what all this unit will do. The initial speaker setup is pretty straight forward and works as advertised. No problems with the microphone for me. My system consists of DirecTV HD DVR, Samsung DLP HDTV, Sony Blu-Ray DVD and most recently a Wii. The HDMI connectivity for the DVR and Blu-Ray to the Onkyo and then 1 HDMI cable to the TV is very clean. The Wii is via Component Video to the Onkyo and then the Onkyo sends the video to the TV through the HDMI out. Input/Output setup and digital input assignments on the Onkyo is a snap with its On-Screen Setup Menus.
One problem that was bothering me was that I was having difficulty getting my Blu-Ray Movies to play with what I thought was the proper Digital Audio. While selecting DTS HD Master Audio (7.1) on the DVD menu, the Onkyo would not show anything but PCM input coming to it. Another reviewer commented on this same issue implying that it was a problem with the receiver. While thinking this was a setup issue on the Onkyo, I finally figured out the problem was with the setup of the SONY BLU-RAY player and not the Onkyo. After changing a setting on the Sony unit, my Onkyo now plays DTS HD Master Audio in all 7 channels as expected and displays TRUE HD on the Onkyo display.
Many users comment on the HEAT that this receiver puts out. I cannot say that this unit puts off any more or any less heat than the TX555 receiver it replaced. I cannot say that heat is a problem for me, as I am used to receivers being somewhat warm to the touch.
Compared to any other brand receiver in its price range and the features that the 606 gives, I have no regrets for my selection of this unit. More than enough power for my moderate sized home theater room. Maybe an even more amazing point is that this new Onkyo 606 provides me with all the latest technology and even 15 more watts per channel than the TX555 that it replaced and cost $200 less today than what I paid for the TX555 ten years ago.
EXCELLENT VALUE FOR THE DOLLAR !! GREAT PERFORMANCE !!
Customer Review: Great Home Theater Receiver
Summary: 3 Stars
YES, Another Update! 2/2/2010
Changed the main HDMI cable for a better quality one and everything seems to be working. To be sure the repair shop used the best quality HDMI cable to test with but whatever. Everything seems to be working for now...
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE 1/15/2010
The "repaired" unit is now doing the exact same thing after having it back for a little over three months. As evidenced by the comments below this appears to be a common problem.
AVOID this brand and/or AVOID this model and price point. Clearly ONKYO has not figured out how to do HDMI switching. Anyone know a brand/model that does?
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
10 weeks now and still in the shop. There are now so many of these units with bad HDMI I'm considering a class-action lawsuit. Clearly Onkyo has created a peice of junk and cannot seem to fix it. Customer Service must be getting verbally beaten up daily now with all the complaints. I've never been so frustrated in my life dealing with a defective product. I have tons of tech gear, I work in the IT industry, I'm used to things not working exactly as they should but Onkyo has raised (lowered) the bar in poor quality control and customer dis-service. Nice job.
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
Seven months after I bought this the HDMI switching stopped working. It's now been in the shop for SIX WEEKS along with several other SR-606s waiting to have their HDMI boards replaced. If this fixes the problem for good it's still a great receiver. If not, it's a peice of junk.
I was looking to replace an older Pioneer system with one that had better (cleaner) power and HDMI. The Onkyo TX -SR 606 was the perfect choice. Great sound, easy automatic configuration and calibration and all the bells and whistles that 99% of the people out there will ever need. Plus you can't beat the price.
Several of the reviews mention that the unit runs hot - mine does not. I was so worried about heat that I ran mine for days out where I could monitor it and never felt like it was running any hotter than any other electronic component I've owned. It's now in an open cabinet with adequate ventilation so no worries there.
All in all a great receiver as evidenced by the number of units shipping and positive reviews. Mine's coupled with the Mirage Nanosat 5.1 and it fills my large room with vaulted ceilings perfectly. Highly recommended.
Customer Review: Great quality for the price, with a few minor caveats
Summary: 4 Stars
After a lot of research, I finally pulled the trigger on the Onkyo TX-SR606 receiver. Overall, I'd say I'm 90% satisfied with it, and for someone as nitpicky as me, that says a lot. There are other reviews that will sing the praises of the audio output for the receiver, but I'll just say that the Audyssey sound setup was excellently calibrated and my Harmon Kardon HTKS-18 5.1 speakers sound fantastic.
Where you might run into trouble with this receiver is the video output. Some of the problems I ran into with the system over the past 2 months can be summarized as video signal dropout. None are total deal breakers, to be sure, some may be systemic to my particular setup. But if these issues bother you, you might want to look elsewhere.
My home entertainment set-up includes a Sony Bravia HDTV, and multiple types of inputs including composite (PS2), component (DVR, Wii) and HDMI (DVD, Xbox 360), and one HDMI output to the TV. First issue: occasionally there are brief (1-5 second) interruptions in the video output to the TV when watching live cable, while the audio is normal. It is as if the video quality that reached the receiver wasn't of high enough fidelity to be converted to 1080i. This may be because I didn't want to spend money a ridiculously overpriced Monster HDMI cable, however, this problem doesn't occur when watching shows recorded on DVR.
The second issue is also annoying and is one that is proven to be systemic to many types of Onkyo receivers. If you own a Nintendo Wii and play the downloadable Virtual Console games, which have much lower resolution signals, you will need to alter the now standard "all in, one HDMI out" setup. The upscaling conversion that is advertised for the TX-SR606 does NOT work properly for the VC game output codec and again shows a blank screen when active. None of the alternate HDMI video output modes found in the setup screen work in fixing the video. The signal is making it to the receiver because when you pause the Wii VC game with Home button, causing the 480p menu screen to appear, the video signal returns. The one solution I found was to send the component video to the TV directly and the component audio the receiver as normal. The Wii doesn't really benefit too much from any upscaling anyway. You'll just have to switch inputs on the TV, a minor inconvienence, as you can do it with a properly setup Onkyo remote.
Although I've discussed the problems I've had with the receiver, overall, I'm very pleased with it. I expected much more of a problem getting the audio set up than the video, but the audio quality is superb. Just try to be flexible with how you want your video inputs setup, because that still can use some work on this model.
Customer Review: Yamaha for the same price would be better off for you
Summary: 1 Stars
They just discontinued this, so if you found one selling and considering, dont bother. For the same price, go buy a Yamaha AV 09 models, much more worthy for you. I tested for 2 week on my Mirage Prestige and S8 Prestige.
Pro: Beyond what everyone has talked about here already, this receiver has OSD set up (great).
Remote: very nicely layout, large buttons, recognized my other equipments.
The audio auto set up gets it perfectly. THAT'S ALL THE PROS!
Cons: very very basic DSP options, I think we all enjoy having hall, concert, jazz, orchestra and many many other surround sound options.
Sound quality is really for movies, music (not so much) to compare to other brands. I think you would want a AV that can do both well, why sacrifice?
Humming like everyone says, I get the humm from the TV when I switch channel with that half second silence or when there's TV silence you'll hear that humm/buzz sound. again, why sacrifice and it's annoying to everyone. When watching TV, the humm will come back and gone from time to time as well. You'll hear it when you turn it up, I think most people dont notice it bc they're not turning it up while watch sports like I do.
Set up, it's ridiculous even with OSD. You'll go crazy if you can't get it right the first time, trust me, you'll have problems like why TV has no sound coming out. I gave up and connected RCA/Components sound from TV to AV. CS of Onkyo doesnt know how to help, and the CS didn't even know what a HTPC is.
HDMI connection, alot of problem recognizing, I had to connect my HTPC to HDMI 4, to 3 to 1, I get various problems. One of prob i have (maybe all AV receivers have the same problem with this) when my HTPC goes to sleep, AV disconnects and has lost signal, can't bring the signal back unless I reboot my HTPC. That's #1 annoyance. What da hell is AV receiver for anyways if it looses signal.
AV Too high in height, unless u got a tall cabinet insert, trust me it aint gonna fit in for sure. Mine has a tall clearance already and still wouldn't fit.
Aite, those are my major issues, others have mentioned theirs and we're all in common. The rating is in volume and high on this receiver that's why i bought it. There's always a minimum 1% defective rate for electronics so I can understand that. But I dont think you want to take that chance on buying this receiver knowing the common problems we're all having, not to include that this receiver isn't quality to listen to quality music.
You mind as well just buy a Yam or Denon which will be quality for music and movie without all the problems we all did with this Onkyo
Customer Review: This is the receiver you want!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is it.
I mean, come one! It's got 4 HDMI inputs, it upscales all inputs ( component, svideo, and even composite inputs) so you can use a single HDMI output, and it has the Audyssey eq system - all for under $500 (at the time of this writing)
The first 3 features are relatively self explanatory to you home theater gurus but the Audyssey system requires some additional explanation and praise.
This was one of the selling points for me. Even though I knew very little about it, it sounded cool. Basically you place the supplied microphone at various points in your room and hit a button on the receiver. It sends out some weird-sounding twirps over each speaker, one at atime, and then completely adjusts your speaker levels and EQ settings automatically. I found the result to be striking to say the least.
I recently re-did my entire home theater which involved replacing everything in my system except the chairs. Blu-ray, 1080i projector, in-wall speakers, and a whomping subwoofer were all purchased. To tie it all together I purchased this Onkyo TX-SR606.
When I first hooked this unit up to my new speaker setup (with no adjustments yet made) I was already impressed with the sound. My discerning ears noticed a few things that I might adjust, like perhaps the center channel needed to be turned up and the subwoofer turned down a bit. However, I did not worry about that at all. Instead, I just plugged in this magic little mic and pushed the "enter" button. The unit prompted me to move the microphone around a room a few times. About 15 minutes later it was done.
The difference in sound was immediately noticeable. My subwoofer was less muddy, the mids and highs became noticeably clearer, and I even found I could crank the system up more without distortion.
Of course your results may vary, but my results were absolutely striking.
A final note, the entire Onkyo TX line is great but note that THIS model (the sr606) is probably the minimum model that you will want. I would stay away from the cheaper ones in this line. Not only do they lack video upconversion (which is typical for cheaper receivers and might not be a big deal for you), but they do not pass any sound on the HDMI inputs through. Yikes, you will need to run separate cables for the sound! This doesn't make any sense and contradicts the whole purpose of HDMI.
This (the sr606) does NOT have the above issues. This is the one you want!
I never even tried the remote for this Onkyo. I use a Logitech Harmony 880 universal remote to control the entire system (and you should too!)